Claude Monet

Neither his choices of subject nor his modes of seeing, composing, and executing were accidental, nor were they dictated by a systematic theory. . . Yet, beneath the eddies in the flow of his art always lay an unswerving determination to paint truthfully the world in which he lived (Seitz 337).

Paris in the nineteenth century was the center of the art world, and a large number of brilliant artists collected in the same region and worked at the same time in this city. They endured years of rebuff and suffering, but together they completely changed the course of Western art. They lived in Montmartre, a little village on a steep cliff overlooking Paris, and by 1860 this village had become a part of the city itself. It still had a village atmosphere, however, and it was quaint and picturesque and cheap. The little village was the center of Bohemian life, and this life took place in the cafes of the area where the artists would congregate and discuss their art. This was also a city of wealth at the time, and this contributed to the support of the arts by a number of collect

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onet's London pictures demonstrate his ability to convey atmosphere and also show his approach to experimentation with the technical means to portray atmospheric effects. These are part of the "series" method of representing nature, a method that originated in giving attention to more and more specific weather phenomena. In a series, Monet would paint the same subject at different times of day, on subsequent days, with different atmospheric conditions, and so on, and in so doing he would observe and recreate the range of light and a variety of specific atmospheric conditions. Many of the works he painted in London show his dedication to finding a technique that will accomplish this task: In London he and Pissarro saw the Thames River with its luminescent fogs, and at the museums the sunsets, moonlights, storms, and dissolutions of Turner. . . There is reason to believe, also, that he may have seen one or two of the misty and patternized Nocturnes of Whistler. But whatever the reasons or influences, it can be said that his London studies show a new interest in atmosphere (Seitz 340-341). Monet's painting "Waterloo Bridge" from 1900 is one of a series of paintings along the Thames, and Monet would paint the bridge again in 1
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Approximate Word count = 1555
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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